Third-Party Logistics in Atlanta, Georgia
Chihade International operates a 64,000 sq. ft. SQF-certified, food-grade third-party logistics facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia — about 30 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, just off the I-85 corridor. Dry, chilled and frozen storage under one roof, with a USDA inspector on site.
Why Metro Atlanta Works for Food Logistics
Gwinnett County sits at the junction of the I-85 and I-985 corridors, with I-285 and I-75 a short run away. That puts a large share of the Southeast inside a one-day truck radius, and much of the eastern United States inside two.
- Port of Savannah — roughly a four-hour drive, one of the busiest container ports in the country and the practical export gateway for the Southeast.
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International — about 45 minutes away, for air freight and expedited replenishment.
- Inland rail and drayage — established lanes between metro Atlanta and the coast.
- Labour and carrier depth — a mature logistics market, which matters when volumes move seasonally.
What the Facility Holds
- 40,000 sq. ft. dry storage
- 16,000 sq. ft. chilled
- 8,000 sq. ft. freezer
- 22 dock doors
- SQF certified — a GFSI-benchmarked food safety standard
- HACCP programme in place
- USDA inspector on site
Three temperature regimes in one building means product changes regime without going over the road — no extra cross-dock, no extra cold chain exposure.
Services
Storage and handling
Ambient, chilled and frozen pallet positions, receiving and put-away, inventory management, cycle counting, and pick and pack down to case level.
Value-added work
Kitting and re-packing, case breaking, display building, relabelling, and ink-jet date coding. If a retailer or a destination market needs the pack presented differently, that work happens here rather than at the customer’s end.
Export preparation
Destination-language labelling, consolidation of multiple suppliers into a single container, and export documentation assembled from the loaded pick — packing lists, certificates of origin, health and USDA certificates, halal certification where required.
Consolidation
The core of what we do. Goods arrive from many manufacturers, are staged until an order is complete, and ship as one load. It is what lets a buyer carry a range without meeting every manufacturer’s minimum.
Who Uses This Facility
- U.S. manufacturers and brands needing Southeast storage and fulfilment, with or without an export component.
- Exporters and trading companies that need a food-grade, SQF-certified staging point near Savannah.
- Franchise systems supplying domestic and international locations from one inventory.
- Importers and distributors consolidating American product for shipment abroad.
We have been doing this since 1979 and source from more than 300 U.S. manufacturers, so the building is run by people who understand food, not just pallets.
Freight and Logistics Management
Storage is one part of it. The work that usually decides whether a shipment lands on time is the paperwork and the freight around it, and that is handled in-house from the same building.
- Export documentation — health certificates, certificates of origin, packing lists and the country-specific paperwork each destination asks for.
- USDA inspection support — there is a USDA inspector on site, which matters for meat and poultry loads where plant eligibility and stamping have to be right before the container moves.
- Customs and compliance — matching labelling, coding and documentation to the destination’s requirements. Confirm the current rules for your market before you ship; they change.
- Freight arrangement across ocean, air and ground — including urgent air movements when a perishable programme cannot wait for the next sailing.
3PL for U.S. Companies Shipping Worldwide
Not every user of this warehouse is in Georgia, and not every one of them is an exporter. A U.S. manufacturer can hold inventory here and have it picked, labelled and shipped domestically. An exporter can use it as the staging point where product from many suppliers becomes one container. A franchise system can run domestic and international supply out of a single inventory position rather than two.
What ties those together is that the building is set up for food specifically — SQF-certified, temperature-controlled, with a USDA inspector on site — rather than being a general-goods warehouse that also takes food. Chihade International has been sourcing from U.S. manufacturers since 1979 and ships to more than 30 countries, so the people running the floor understand what a rejected load costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where exactly is the facility?
Lawrenceville, Georgia, in Gwinnett County — roughly 30 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, close to the I-85 corridor.
Is the warehouse food-grade and certified?
Yes. It is SQF certified, a GFSI-benchmarked food safety standard, and we operate a HACCP programme. There is also a USDA inspector on site.
Do you handle frozen and chilled, or dry only?
All three. 40,000 sq. ft. dry, 16,000 sq. ft. chilled and 8,000 sq. ft. freezer, in the same building, across 22 dock doors.
Can you handle export documentation as well as storage?
Yes — that is the part most domestic 3PLs do not do. Export and health certificates, certificates of origin, halal certification where required, and packing lists built from what was physically loaded.
Do I have to be an exporter to use the warehouse?
No. We handle domestic storage, fulfilment and value-added work for U.S. brands with no international component at all.
Can you consolidate freight from multiple suppliers?
Yes. Consolidation is the core service — receiving from many manufacturers, staging until an order is complete, then shipping as a single load.
How is this different from a general 3PL warehouse?
Three things: the building is SQF-certified for food specifically, there is a USDA inspector on site, and the same team handles the export paperwork rather than handing it to a broker. A general-goods 3PL can store your product; it usually cannot get a temperature-sensitive load documented and cleared for a destination market.
Related
3PL and export warehousing overview · Our facility · Export services · What a food export warehouse actually does · Cold chain for food exports
Request a 3PL Quote
Tell us what you need stored, in what temperature regime, and roughly what volume — we will come back with a quote.